Embattled 3D printable gun advocate Cody Wilson and his Texas-based company, Defense Distributed are being sued by nearly two dozen states in the US. Attorneys General are marshaling a coast-to-coast legal fight against Mr. Wilson after he had an agreement with the US Department of State that effectively allowed Defense Distributed to host downloadable firearm blueprints for use with a 3D printer. In response, Mr. Wilson launched a two-week fundraising and media campaign to raise awareness of his plight, hoping to be able have digital 3D firearm blueprint files freely downloadable from his website.

3D Gun Advocate Cody Wilson Reveals Two Week Legal Fundraiser

"In July, you may have heard that Defense Distributed won a settlement from the US Dept of State to publish gun blueprints online," Mr. Wilson began in a letter to supporters who have been with him from the beginning. "We in fact received a license from the federal government to publish our software, and we consider it a landmark victory for the 1st and 2nd Amendments, hard won after many years in federal court."

Indeed, Mr. Wilson dropped out of a promising legal career as a student at the University of Texas to pursue what was at first a lark, a flirt, half a decade ago. He and a friend were inspired by the work of Julian Assange and Wikileaks. Mr. Wilson and a couple of conspirators set out to create a version of something they called a Wikiweapon. Radical equality was what they insisted they were pursuing through the Maker movement, essentially hobbyists who wanted to build replacement parts or molds for art projects. No one had previously thought of gun.